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Welcome to The EDU Ledger! We’ve moved from Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

Section: Blogs/Opinion

Report on For-Profits

Today, American college graduates collectively owe a staggering $1.3 trillion in student debt — the second highest debt category in the country, following mortgage debt and outpacing automobile loans and credit card debt. Over a tenth of graduates ultimately default on their loans. And, according to a recent report from Brookings Institution, for-profit colleges — a controversial sector of the higher […]

March 27, 2018

Report on For Profit

Working with Schools

Air Mobility Command is hard at work looking to expand partnerships with area schools near and surrounding military installations. Ensuring a strong science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics curriculum, known as STEAM, benefits school districts and the Air Force alike. However, not necessarily for the reasons one may think. For the Air Force, this need […]

March 23, 2018

Working with Schools

Saluting School Choice

Americans who join the military know they’ll be making sacrifices. They put their lives on the line, obviously, but beyond that, they know they’ll have no say in where they live. Indeed, frequent moves are often part of the package. The service-member in question may understand and accept this, but what about the sacrifices of […]

March 22, 2018

Saluting School Choice

Optics at V.A.

The VA OIG is apparently investigating Secretary David Shulkin’s misuse of his staff by asking one to help him shop at Home Depot and Donald Trump is pissed. The optics are bad, and I am sure he is pissed about compromising to keep Shulkin instead of going with a pick of his own to lead […]

March 20, 2018

Defrauding Students

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Katherine Clark just released the DeVos Watch, summarizing the secretary of education’s first year in office as riddled with conflicts of interest and questionable ethics. Massachusetts’ members of Congress aren’t the only ones keeping a close eye on Betsy DeVos. Those of us who work with low-income students have witnessed with […]

March 16, 2018

Defrauding Students

Education Options

Unfortunately, the growing divide between the military and society was apparent last week when a teacher’s inaccurate and misinformed statements about the quality of America’s armed forces made national headlines. As a U.S. Army officer for more than 30 years, I can tell you our nation’s military services are among the most respected organizations in […]

March 15, 2018

Education Options

Converting to Nonprofit

Participants at an upcoming invitation-only conference in the Washington DC area, entitled “Innovation and Public Private Partnership in Higher Education” (P3•EDU for short), will include Purdue University president Mitch Daniels and Graham Holdings chairman Donald Graham — fresh off the finalization of their troubling deal merging public Purdue and Graham’s for-profit Kaplan University. Also scheduled […]

March 13, 2018

Converting to Nonprofit

Blurred Lines

As far as universities go, Kaplan and Purdue could not have been more different. Kaplan University, which operated under parent company Graham Holdings, a $3.2 billion corporation, was part of the troubled for-profit college sector. Purdue is generally considered one of the best public universities in the United States and the world. Be that as […]

March 9, 2018

Russia’s Weaponry

Last week, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia has produced indomitable weapons of mass destruction. Putin’s annual speech on March 1 suggested Russia had created new cruise missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and hypersonic missiles, as well as underwater drones. Putin also suggested that Russia’s weaponry was so innovative that anti-missile defense systems cannot counter […]

March 8, 2018

Civilian Arms Race

The Second Amendment is a remarkable piece of the Constitution. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” it reads. Set aside for the moment questions about its practical interpretations today and its usefulness as a […]

March 6, 2018

Civilian Arms Race

Learning Outcomes

The tried-and-true credit hour is so entrenched in higher education, it’s hard to imagine a system that doesn’t measure students’ academic progress in units of classroom time. Generally speaking, if a student reaches 120 hours, he or she will be walking across the stage to claim a bachelor’s degree. But the conversation around learning outcomes is […]

March 2, 2018

College Classroom

School Choice for Military

School choice for military families is an idea whose time has come, according to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Her support of the idea, announced at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, is one that should resonate with readers of Military Times. In 2017, Military Times conducted a survey of its readers that yielded striking findings: 35 percent of […]

March 1, 2018

School for Military Kids

Employment Initiative

Experts have declared the Veterans Employment initiative a success in terms of bringing veterans into federal employment. But now the program is stalling, and those experts say it’s time to shift focus away from broad hiring initiatives, and toward more concentrated efforts to boost their distribution through more diverse agencies, and increase retention and engagement. […]

February 27, 2018

VA Employment_VA Twitter

Supporting Troops

With all the news about dysfunctional government, it was nice to read in a recent article in The Gazette that we have done a good job supporting our troops stationed here in Colorado. The article (“Guard’s ranks packed”, Feb. 5) reports that Major General Michael Loh, the head of the Colorado National Guard, “credited moves […]

February 23, 2018

Transformative Leaders

Do good military commanders make good education leaders? That is a question which Montana’s Higher Education Commission will answer in the coming years. However, if the new University of Montana president follows the pattern set by former Seattle Public School Superintendent John Stanford and Clark College President Bob Knight, the answer will be a resounding […]

February 22, 2018

Giving Up on D.C.

As a young Washingtonian, Edward Doxen watched his uncle become the first person in his family to attend college. Although unsure of his own future, he knew he wanted to give back to his community and continuously set himself, and others, up for success. Years later, with the encouragement of his teachers and advisors, Edward […]

February 20, 2018

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Support for Service Members

Can we get a shout-out for Senate Bill 1557, the bill that would make academic accommodation for Oregon military members called up for active duty? This exhortation is necessary because the bill has bipartisan sponsors and enjoys widespread bipartisan support. More importantly, it is a no-nonsense modification bill that will help Oregonians in the military […]

February 16, 2018

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Fix TAP

When I was in high school, I had a GPA of 1.6 and barely graduated. Nonetheless, my mother always believed that I would be the first person in our family to receive my college degree. In 2010, she passed away in a head-on collision car accident, and I became a ward of the state at […]

February 15, 2018

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